Paul Ryan’s favorite lines

• On Obama and the economy (making comparison with blown calls by NFL replacement referees): “If you can’t get it right, it’s time to get out.” • On Obama saying he can’t change Washington from the inside: “If he can’t change Washington, then we need to change presidents.” • On Obama’s economic plan: “You see, the Obama economic agenda has failed not because it was stopped but because it was passed.” • On military spending cuts: “… that projects weakness abroad. And by projecting weakness abroad, our adversaries are so much more tempted to test us. And our allies are so much less willing to trust us.” • On what he and Romney would do about the debt crisis: “We’re going to tackle this problem before it tackles us.” • On Romney’s comment that 47 percent of Americans see themselves as victims and that government should take care of them: “We want an opportunity society not a welfare state. ... We should not be measuring the success of our safety net of programs like food stamps based on how many people we get on food stamps. We should be measuring the success of these programs based on how many people we get off of food stamps and off of welfare and back to work.”

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DAYTON, OHIO — At a convention hall in downtown Lima, Ohio, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan was in his comfort zone recently as he relied on a PowerPoint presentation to illustrate his warnings about the nation being engulfed by debt.

Wearing a crisp white shirt with folded up sleeves and orange and white striped tie, the seven-term congressman from Janesville frequently waved an arm or poked the air with his forefinger and thumb pressed together to accent a point or punchline. The kicker on this topic was what he and GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney would do to address the $16 trillion debt.

“We’re going to tackle this problem before it tackles us,” Ryan said, drawing huge applause from the more than 1,500 attendees surrounding the elevated platform where the candidate answered questions in a town hall forum.

On this stage, Ryan was more like a professor giving a lecture on economics than a politician delivering a stump speech. It was the Ryan some Republicans have grumbled recently they have not seen enough of since Romney chose him as his running mate on Aug. 11.

Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, is an unabashed numbers man who is architect of a budget plan that conservative Republicans have embraced as a bold course for the nation’s future. He relishes a debate or discussion over government spending, entitlement reforms and changes in the tax code.

He will have a chance to show off those skills Thursday when he squares off with Vice President Joe Biden in Danville, Ky., in the only vice presidential debate.

Fans want more Ryan

Ryan boasts of having done more than 500 town-hall style events in Wisconsin. But in his first month on the campaign trail, he had done just two. A recent Politico story said GOP conservatives were complaining Ryan was appearing too much as a “Mini-Mitt,” instead of playing to his strengths as an economic policy guru.

During a Sept. 21 radio interview, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker registered his disappointment with how the Romney campaign was being run and suggested the former Massachusetts governor’s team could make better use of Ryan.

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“They not only need to use him out on the trail more effectively,” Walker told the show’s host, Charlie Sykes, “they need to have more of him rub off on Mitt.”

That’s something Sharon Phelps, a retired registered nurse in Cincinnati, certainly would like to see.

“I wish I could see more of that fire and excitement out of Romney,” Phelps said after catching the Ryan show at a local steel recycling plant a day after his stop in Lima.

While many Republicans would like to see more of Ryan in Romney or more of Ryan discussing his own ideas, Ryan’s top priority on the stump should be as No. 1 pitchman for the No. 1 nominee on the presidential ticket, said Joel Goldstein, an expert on the vice presidency at St. Louis University.

“The job isn’t to sell your ideas but to sell the presidential candidate,” he said.

Goldstein said Romney’s selection of Ryan as running mate posed a potential dilemma for the campaign because of Ryan’s budget plan.

“It’s got some really controversial parts in it that Romney wants to distance himself from,” Goldstein said. “That has created a little bit of tension between what the base of the party wants and what the Ryan campaign wants.”

The Romney/Ryan team say the griping among the ranks was being overblown and that Ryan has been a tremendous asset to the ticket whether at rallies or town hall meetings.

Campaign spokesman Brendan Buck said Ryan has been to every battleground state and has done nearly 200 media interviews, mostly local.

“We think we have an advantage in the appeal Paul Ryan has compared to Joe Biden,” Buck said. “We’re excited about our ability to send him anywhere that is a battleground. He’s a good communicator who is effective in taking complex issues and explaining them in a way that people can understand.”

Buck acknowledged Ryan likely would do more town hall events as well as joint appearances with Romney.

“He enjoys the back and forth,” Buck said about the question and answer sessions. “He really connects with people that way.”

Connecting with crowds

At the town hall meeting in Cincinnati, Ryan apparently connected with Jason Bennett, 34, who drove 55 miles from Connersville, Ind., with his wife, 14-year-old daughter and infant son. Bennett said he is an independent who voted for Obama in 2008 but is likely to go with Romney this November.

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This was Bennett’s first time seeing Ryan, and he was impressed.

“He seems to be pretty knowledgeable and straightforward,” Bennett said. “He’s very articulate and down to earth.”

For this event, Ryan wore khakis and a dark-colored, short-sleeve polo shirt. This event also included a debt clock that showed the nation’s financial obligation increasing by the second. In this setting, Ryan is an engaging wonk.

“Paul is at his best when he’s interacting directly with voters,” said Bryan Steil, a former legislative aide and longtime friend of the congressman. He added Ryan has long been a fan of charts and graphs. “It’s probably a little bit on the wonky side, but it makes certain aspects of his talk about the debt really clear.”

Ryan’s PowerPoint slides show the increase in government spending, the growth in the nation’s debt, how much of the debt is owned by foreign governments and each American’s share of the debt. It’s $51,000, he says, “like your new mortgage. It’s bigger than a car payment.”

“We have a moral obligation to do something about this to save the American dream for our children and for ourselves,” Ryan told the audience.

In his standard stump speech, Ryan frames the election as a clear choice between competing visions of the direction in which the country should go. He unleashes biting criticism of President Barack Obama’s leadership on the economy, foreign policy and the health care reform law.

Ryan then promotes Romney, lauding his tenure as governor of Massachusetts, his role with the 2002 Winter Olympics and his career as a businessman.

“This is a man who knows how the economy works, because he’s created over 10,000 jobs,” Ryan told hundreds gathered at an airport rally just outside Dayton, Ohio, where he and Romney appeared together. “When this man was governor, he didn’t blame, he didn’t duck, he didn’t demagogue. He got things done.”

It was one of the few joint appearances in the campaign at that point. The two GOP candidates were a picture of contrasts as they stood next to each other on an overcast, windy afternoon. Romney, 65, graying at the temples, wore a red windbreaker. Ryan, 42, slim-waisted with a youthful smile, wore a black one.

Ryan, whose supporters cite energy and charisma among his endearing traits, seemed to savor his role as supporting actor as he charged up the crowd for the top GOP nominee.

“After four years of getting the runaround, this country needs a turnaround,” Ryan said, “and this is the man to do it.”